"Grammar of Happiness" Q&A - Daniel Everett

Introduction and Q&A with Daniel Everett about The Grammar of Happiness, a film by Michael O'Neill & Randall Wood.
From the LSA 2013 Linguistic Institute, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, July 3, 2013.

[@pinkyoilers]

Is he still not allowed to visit the Pirahã? Seems incredibly unfair and totally goes against the whole "allowing native groups to have their own autonomy" thing. They want to see him. They should let them see him

[@austinlang6946]

After Chomsky passes he’ll probably suddenly be allowed again. Seems like they are introducing Portuguese on the baseline of trying to make themselves right by forming a blend of languages in the coming generations of natives in order to say “aww see look it’s recursive” and if you cut off the linguist who really really speaks the language it gives them time to do that. I’m not saying that’s truly the case but academics are some of the most prideful and petty people and these ideas have a lot of money on the line from grants and different sorts of things. I can tell you one thing for certain, they aren’t doing it bc they are truly concerned with “truth”. The way Chomsky has handled himself in regards to this stuff has made me lose so much respect for him as a scientist and even as a person. The idea of progress is that we all end up wrong in some way eventually even on the things we thought we were absolutely sure about. Seems like these Chomsky followers etc don’t want to accept that reality.

[@yairalkon4944]

4:54 - Dan giving an introduction 7:11 - Are there words in Pirahã for comparing quantities? 7:54 - Did you [Dan] have an appropriate certificate to conduct research on the Pirahã? 12:46 - How accurate are the claims that Pirahã doesn't have any way to mark future or past? 13:39 - What were the 3 instances which you described as attemps to murder you? 16:10 - How accurately does the editing of the interview with Noam Chomsky in the film? And how would you respond to the observation that diversity isn't a proof of a genetic determination? [Regarding universal grammar] 18:53 - Were you allowed to return and visit the Pirahã? 19:31 - Do you think that the lack of recursion in Pirahã is evidence of language being a result of culture and not biology? Their language seems still very ordinary and human to me. 24:57 - Are other linguists allowed or interested to research the Pirahã? 26:53 - What was it like for you to show the film to an audience of linguists? 27:51 - To what extent did your children learn to speak Pirihã? 29:19 - Who chose the film's title? 30:24 - If the Pirahã have no words for color, how do they speak about color? 31:27 - Is it true that anything that can be said in Pirahã can also be whistled? 33:17 - How well do the Pirahã learn Portuguese and it's linguistic elements which are foreign to them? (Such as recursion, counting, color, etc.) 36:49 - Given thousands of languages with recursion, how does the apparent lack of recursion in Pirahã constitute as a proof for recursion not being a fundemental part of language?

[@ivanriverooo]

Dan starts speaking at 4:48. Then 7:03 later on. Welcome.

[@ColorMusicTheory]

Very informative Q & A with Daniel Everett. He provides many succinct answers which help clarify claims in his research.

[@dadsonworldwide3238]

Daniels work and lectures are so enlightening and full of great thought. Rational common sense and practical theory and ideas. Hes also has a very important point that thoughts dictate language its not the other way around as many sjw think.

[@vincentanguoni8938]

Nice... Are you familiar with Joseph Campbell!!!

[@vincentanguoni8938]

This guy is great!!!

[@iracibarbosa772]

Eu também penso igual aos Pirahã, logo também sou atéia e feliz 🇧🇷😁

[@judithsamuels6966]

Where's the movie?

[@Nautilus1972]

search for : "The Amazon Code" The Grammar of Happiness (Linguistics)

[@iohannesfischer1938]

Portuguese subtitles????

[@unusuario5173]

Sé que no es la respuesta que esperas, pero considera aprender inglés. La cantidad de información a la que de repente tienes acceso por saber otro idioma es algo hermoso.

[@mayramoreira913]

Considere aprender outras línguas além do inglês. Algumas pessoas que supostamente sabem nem entenderam nada da palestra, senão nao teria feito esse comentário infeliz.

[@casiandsouza7031]

Our woman see colour like Pitaha. At a Xmas occasion that I had to wear a red tie to,a lady challenged with I was wearing burgundy. My X was also picky that way.

[@vincentanguoni8938]

Very interesting....

[@kusanagimotoko3621]

looking at deep learning / machine learning, hierarchies are the least efficient way of organizing information (this is not from the 1960s). the 75kU$imaginarydullars case proves that ... nothing reaches where it should reach (look up organic vs top down approach of decision making)

[@annford6640]

Encountered the film via KZbin, here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3_cc2ecfr97m7c ... hope this was all on the "up and up." Then, the KZbin algorithm suggested this Q&A. Lucky me. I was only introduced to Professor Everett's work--and now "controversial" chapter of it as well--from yesterday until today. Suffice it to say, I have some further reading to do. The first video title that caught my eye was the following: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqa4mp9_g5Jrnc0... you know... just to feed the data analytics beast. Anywho, I have been interested as hell, delighted, and pissed off, all within a 36-hour period--free of charge! Enough said~~

[@vincentanguoni8938]

Personally I believe isolated people should be left that way... Just sayin'. Not saying this guys work is not important!!!

[@LiberApolion]

Are this Indians properties of Brazilian government?

[@humbertoaguinaga2970]

it seems so... for various reasons they are treated like protected children

[@lawsonj39]

The variety of views among people who consider themselves socialists is just as wide as the variety of views among people who espouse capitalism. Be careful not to over-generalize. Capitalists have killed tens of millions: does that mean you're personally guilty of all those deaths?

[@agoogleuser3262]

John Lwason, How??? Capitalism NEVER killed anyone! That is impossible. Socialism killed millions. So no, i consider myself capitalist and i don't feel guilty because capitalism never killed anyone.

[@Jefferdaughter]

@@humbertoaguinaga2970 - Or, their most basic of human rights - the right to be left alone - is (finally) being honored.

[@Jefferdaughter]

@@agoogleuser3262 - An interesting view. In the USA, the military industrial complex is one of the top industries, generating trillions of $ for Capitalists - some through the sale of weapons and war to the US government, and also though the sale of weapons and other tools of war to other governments and other people. You know, stuff that kills people. Often lots of people all at once, in what can be a very indiscriminate manner. The reasons or excuses for starting or waging war are also all too often capitalist. These reasons are often hidden, but the reasons that the USA has become involved in wars - and killed countless people - often in the pursuit of profits. There may be another, more accurate term for this than capitalism, but I do not know what it is.

[@GraemeMarkNI]

He makes Chomsky sound like a vindictive little man.

[@caroleclohesy8612]

Chomsky called him a charlatan.

[@vincentanguoni8938]

Chomsky is a little man constantly looking for recognition... He now has TWIGTHS...my invention... The world is going to hell syndrome!

[@vincentanguoni8938]

Because he is that!!!

[@Scrunchymage]

Hrmm I suppose the only way for them to clarify his theory on the language is to have it cross checked by other linguists. Won’t that be definitive proof if he is a charlatan or not?

[@austinlang6946]

The fact that academics like Chomsky claim to want the truth then when they get a guy who gets closer to what truth is they try to shut him down from about every angle.

[@vinayms1332]

The part at 27:31 is quite shocking. That he along with a good portion of the audience, which I assume is made up of linguists, find the idea of "bunch of mathematical symbols to represent grammar" as funny is shocking. I wonder what kind of linguistics is done by these linguists because that supposedly funny thing is how a grammar is represented mathematically. Its called formal grammar. In the video they are referring to, this bit occurs on screen when talking about how MIT scientists are analyzing the Piraha language using a computer model. There is nothing funny about it.

[@ths9015]

As a layperson, who is an expert and professional in interpreting between spoken and visual language, when I first saw this Q&A I didn't get the laughter either. But, as I sit and type this I am watching The Grammar of Happiness on another tab and my takeaway from their laughter was, essentially along the lines of a sarcastic "Great, the computer told us what we already knew. We supposedly need this validation, yet the validation is still not widely accepted? Ooookkaaayy. Our expertise is boiled down to something WE don't even use (this mathematical formula/representation of the language) but then our expertise is STILL not validated?" But that's just my sociolinguistic perspective/approach.

[@austinlang6946]

So what sign language do you interpret? ASL BSL both or another?

[@princesskenyetta4745]

Modern culture teaches words in a violent way. All the structural violence in the modern world is embedded in our language. Scrap the way you've been teaching words, and start over.